Yes on the Water but no Pillow Fight
World Water Day
As soon as James arrived, we took off for Santa Monica Beach Pier. I didn't know what to expect so I wanted to get there 30 minutes early to check things out and take some pictures but we made such great time we actually got there an hour early.
They already had the booths and stage set up. Starbucks was one of the events sponsors, they handled all the booths and had coffee, tea and Ethos water for everyone.
It was still a bit early but people were steadily showing up and registering.
There were a few activites that promoted awareness to what people in other countries have to go through in order to get clean water to their homes.
Starbucks also had a recruitment drive. This guy was their youngest barrista.
There was an African dance group performing for the participants.
Just before 9 o'clock the pier started to fill up.
There were a few announcements and some speakers.
Melissa Fitzgerald from the TV show West Wing was there as well, promoting awareness.
Then shortly after the announcements and speakers (only took 15-20 minutes) we all started.
The walk was a total of 4.5 mile roundtrip but they had shorter ones depending on when you turned back. We knew we were getting close to the turnaraound when we started seeing other people coming the other way.
It was just before the turnaround when I bumped into an old friend. Brent and his friends from UCLA were on the return trip when he spotted me.
The way back went by quickly and before we knew it, we were headed up th ramp back to the pier. The Starbucks event staff was there to greet, congratulate and pass out water bottles to commemorate the event.
It was a lot of fun. The event organizers, staff and participants had a lot of energy (more than likely from all the coffee flowing). There were staffers along the route encouraging people. There were school groups and other organizations participating that added to the excitement with their enthusiasm. Some of them even carried buckets of water through the whole walk!
I must admit, I kept a pretty good pace and by the 3-mile mark I was starting to feel sluggish. I had thought that it was a 2.5 mile walk (I didn't read the fine print one way-hahaha).
Walk route
I forgot to include this link. It is the route highlighted and measured by Google Pedometer.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1721510
Bruddah's and Crashing
After getting our water bottles and taking a few more pictures, James and I headed for the car at the Third Street Promenade Mall parking. We ended up playing the "so, where do you want to eat?" game. I think we spend more effort in trying to figure out where to eat than anything. We ended up in Gardena at Bruddah's for comfort Hawaiian food. Bruddah's is just great Hawaiian comfort food. The stuff you get at the L&Ls, Ono, Loft, etc but "homey-er". Where can you order your hotdogs with chili on rice with the hotdog "skin" burnt?
After lunch we headed up to Jim and Celia's to hang out until the Pillow Fight at Pershing Square. When we got to Jim and Celia's, that's when it hit us. We were BEAT! As we got closer to 3pm, we were thinking of excuses not to go to the pillow fight. So we didn't go. Did anyone go?
As soon as James arrived, we took off for Santa Monica Beach Pier. I didn't know what to expect so I wanted to get there 30 minutes early to check things out and take some pictures but we made such great time we actually got there an hour early.
They already had the booths and stage set up. Starbucks was one of the events sponsors, they handled all the booths and had coffee, tea and Ethos water for everyone.
It was still a bit early but people were steadily showing up and registering.
There were a few activites that promoted awareness to what people in other countries have to go through in order to get clean water to their homes.
Starbucks also had a recruitment drive. This guy was their youngest barrista.
There was an African dance group performing for the participants.
Just before 9 o'clock the pier started to fill up.
There were a few announcements and some speakers.
Melissa Fitzgerald from the TV show West Wing was there as well, promoting awareness.
Then shortly after the announcements and speakers (only took 15-20 minutes) we all started.
The walk was a total of 4.5 mile roundtrip but they had shorter ones depending on when you turned back. We knew we were getting close to the turnaraound when we started seeing other people coming the other way.
It was just before the turnaround when I bumped into an old friend. Brent and his friends from UCLA were on the return trip when he spotted me.
The way back went by quickly and before we knew it, we were headed up th ramp back to the pier. The Starbucks event staff was there to greet, congratulate and pass out water bottles to commemorate the event.
It was a lot of fun. The event organizers, staff and participants had a lot of energy (more than likely from all the coffee flowing). There were staffers along the route encouraging people. There were school groups and other organizations participating that added to the excitement with their enthusiasm. Some of them even carried buckets of water through the whole walk!
I must admit, I kept a pretty good pace and by the 3-mile mark I was starting to feel sluggish. I had thought that it was a 2.5 mile walk (I didn't read the fine print one way-hahaha).
Walk route
I forgot to include this link. It is the route highlighted and measured by Google Pedometer.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1721510
Bruddah's and Crashing
After getting our water bottles and taking a few more pictures, James and I headed for the car at the Third Street Promenade Mall parking. We ended up playing the "so, where do you want to eat?" game. I think we spend more effort in trying to figure out where to eat than anything. We ended up in Gardena at Bruddah's for comfort Hawaiian food. Bruddah's is just great Hawaiian comfort food. The stuff you get at the L&Ls, Ono, Loft, etc but "homey-er". Where can you order your hotdogs with chili on rice with the hotdog "skin" burnt?
After lunch we headed up to Jim and Celia's to hang out until the Pillow Fight at Pershing Square. When we got to Jim and Celia's, that's when it hit us. We were BEAT! As we got closer to 3pm, we were thinking of excuses not to go to the pillow fight. So we didn't go. Did anyone go?
posted by Angel at 3/22/2008 09:11:00 PM
1 Comments:
Great pic of Brent. I "lifted" it, k? :)
Carolyn
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